It is known to arrange a touchscreen on a central console of a vehicle in order to be able to operate an infotainment system of the vehicle via the touchscreen. This use of a touchscreen is advantageous since the touchscreen can be used both to display information and, also, as an input unit. Touchscreens of ever increasing sizes are being installed in vehicles. In addition, the mentioned use of a touchscreen has the advantage that it is increasingly possible to forego physical knobs and buttons since these are replaced by the touchscreen.
One disadvantage of using a touchscreen in the described manner is that when operating the touchscreen, a user does not receive any haptic feedback that he would otherwise receive when actuating knobs and buttons. In order, nonetheless, to be able to provide the user with feedback regarding the operation of the touchscreen, it is known to provide the user with a visual or acoustic feedback or a haptic feedback via vibrations when using a touchscreen.
In addition, it is not possible in the case of a conventional touchscreen to feel the presence of a (virtual) knob on the touchscreen and this makes it difficult to locate said knob. Since by way of example a driver of a vehicle that is equipped with such a touchscreen must visually check whether he has performed an intended operation of the touchscreen or whether the touchscreen has detected the intended operation, the driver is distracted by the procedure of operating the touchscreen, which results in the vehicle being driven in a dangerous manner with zero-visibility since the driver is unable to observe the road and the traffic while operating the touchscreen.
US 2008/0211779 A1 discloses a device that renders it possible to control vehicles in a reconfigurable manner. Physical operating elements and operating elements that are indicated in a virtual manner on a touchscreen are used individually or in combination in order to render it possible to improve the visibility and provide better understanding of the control information and to render the operating elements easier to use, which is particularly useful in stressful situations. The position of a physical operating element that is arranged in a rotatable manner on the touchscreen is detected optically. The physical operating element is arranged on the touchscreen in such a manner that it can be moved via a shaft that extends through the touchscreen and is connected in a non-rotatable manner to the physical operating element.
The object of the disclosure is to provide an in-vehicle operating unit for an in-vehicle system to control an operation of at least one in-vehicle electric device of a vehicle, which is simple to use as a result of the haptic feedback from the operating unit.